Kenwyne Jones fired a hat-trick as Stoke saw off League One side Walsall at
the Britannia Stadium to advance into the third round of the Capital One
Cup.

Mark Hughes’s side took the lead in the 22nd minute when the visitors squandered possession and Jones made the most of the opportunity, cutting inside and firing home.

It was his first goal since January, and the Trinidad and Tobago striker took only nine minutes to add another, rifling into the net from close range after the ball had dropped at his feet from a corner.

It was all fairly comfortable for Stoke, but Walsall did show some signs of promise in the first half.

And after Charlie Adam had been denied by the leg of goalkeeper Richard O’Donnell early in the second period, the visitors got themselves back in the game through Ashley Hemmings’s 57th-minute strike.

Stoke subsequently regained control of the contest, with both Andy Wilkinson and Robert Huth putting the ball in the net but having their efforts ruled out for offside.

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And Jones then completed his treble in the 84th minute, racing on to a through-ball and finishing coolly.

It means Hughes has a record of two wins from two home games so far since taking charge of Stoke this summer, achieved four days apart.

Prior to that, the last win he had overseen was in August 2012 when he was manager of QPR and they won 3-0, also at home in the second round of the Capital One Cup – against Walsall.

A much-changed Cardiff City side progressed to the third round with two second-half goals in the space of a minute to defeat a determined and resilient Accrington.

Strikers Nicky Maynard and Rudy Gestede, who had earlier come on for the injured Andreas Cornelius on the stroke of half-time, struck to ensure the 2012 finalists’ passage.

James Beattie’s Accrington had given a good account of themselves before the 81 places between the two in the Football League pyramid became apparent.

Of more concern to boss Malky Mackay was the ankle injury to debutant Cornelius, a £7.5 million buy from FC Copenhagen.

Maynard broke the deadlock just after the hour with a self-made goal before Gestede also found the net with a sweet first-time shot.

Nottingham Forest edged into the next round with a 2-1 victory over Millwall after extra-time. A 58th-minute header from Matt Derbyshire looked to have settled the tie but Liam Feeney’s drive levelled matters for the Lions with just four minutes left. But a 94th-minute header from academy product Jamaal Lascelles steered Billy Davies’s side to a 2-1 win.

Watford eased through to the third round for the first time since 2008 when they beat Bournemouth 2-0 at Vicarage Road with an Eliot Ward own goal and a strike from Cristian Battocchio.